IoT vs. IIoT
loading… IIot is not IoT. That much is clear. What isn’t clear is where the similarities and differences arise. Because while one is a Revolution, the other is an Evolution. The rest follows from there. The technologies behind the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have existed for many years. Features like remote access, machine-to-machine, cloud…
PI North America 10 Years Ago
loading… As we prepare for our 21st PI North America General Assembly Meeting, I decided it was time to take a look back – 10 years back. The interval was not chosen randomly; I started with PI North America in February 2005. So I stepped into the Wayback Machine; not Mr. Peabody’s, archive.org which has…
On the Road Again
loading… With the arrival of August, the end of summer seems much closer. For PI North America that means we’ll be back on the road teaching PROFINET one-day training classes again. We have six to go: Chicago Tampa Louisville Detroit Raleigh Seattle Starting on August 27 in Chicago, we have a completely revamped curriculum. Granted,…
PROFINET Connector Installation
loading… PROFINET can be really exciting. Field installing Ethernet connectors – not so much. But you have to do it because you have to plug it in. Here’s how: –Carl Henning
It Works Better If You Plug It In
loading… This is a guest post from Volker Goller, European Manager, Real-Time Ethernet Solutions for PI North America member Innovasic. Many years ago I had the pleasure to work with a British engineer. He loved to add some sentence of wisdom to the credentials of the programs he wrote. One phrase, and to me the…
Catching the Process Fieldbus 2nd edition
loading… The second edition of this classic work adds valuable information about PROFINET’s role in process automation, supplementing the widely-used PROFIBUS protocol. With some theory and a lot of practical experience presented, this book is THE place to start learning about PROFIBUS and PROFINET for process. …so it says on the back cover of Catching…
5 Lessons about PROFINET You Can Learn from Superheroes
loading… Sometimes I just have to try to make PROFINET even more fun than usual. So this is a (DC) comic-relief post. (Bad pun intended.) Speed. Faster than Flash. PROFINET can achieve update times of 31.25 microseconds. Even on busy Ethernet backbones PROFINET can hit 250 microseconds with no special hardware. Wireless. Invisible…
What’s Your Name?
loading… What’s the MAC address of the device you are viewing this from? The IP Address? What’s your name? (My device is called “Carl” since I’m the only Carl in the office.) Wouldn’t it be great if your automation devices had names that included what they were and where they were located? And you didn’t…
The Industrial Internet of Things Simplified
loading… I wanted to define IIoT briefly without using phrases like “cyber-physical systems.” Here’s a start: Industrial Robust Internet Communication of of Things Automation Devices Industrial: Robust, rugged, and other words indicating the kind of quality those of us in industrial automation expect so installed devices survive in the hostile environment of the plant floor…
PROFINET and IIoT in the News
loading… There was a time when I was an engineer who engineered. Now I’m an engineer who writes (and edits and teaches). I edit PROFINEWS and write some articles along with Michael Bowne. And write for the blog. And write less than 140 characters at a time for twice-a-weekday Tweets. But wait, there’s more: Here,…